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Swimming: Michael Phelps cruises into 200m fly semi-finals
Superstar Michael Phelps got his bid to make a fifth Olympic team off to a smooth start on Tuesday with the top qualifying time in the 200m butterfly at the US swimming trials.
Superstar Michael Phelps got his bid to make a fifth Olympic team off to a smooth start on Tuesday with the top qualifying time in the 200m butterfly at the US swimming trials.
“I just wanted to swim,” said the 18-time Olympic gold medallist, whose reduced program at this year’s trials left him kicking his heels on the first two days of competition.
As usual, Phelps was his own worst critic after winning his heat 1min 56.68sec.
“Third turn was bad, lost all the momentum,” Phelps said. “I felt like I didn’t really use much legs, kind of dragged them along.
“So,” he added, looking ahead to the evening’s semi-finals, “something to build off of tonight.”
Two days shy of his 31st birthday, Phelps is vying to become the first man to make a fifth US Olympic swimming team, and finish off his remarkable career with a last blaze of glory in Rio.
The 200m fly was the event in which a teenaged Phelps set his first world record, and his world mark of 1:51.51 -- set at the tail end of the bodysuit era in 2009 -- still stands.
Regaining the Olympic title he surrendered to Chad le Clos in London in an event he long considered his baby figures to be a strong motivator for Phelps in Rio, but he was taking things one step at a time.
“I’m happy to get the first (event) underway,” said Phelps, whose time put him 22-hundredths of a second ahead of his nearest challenger, Pace Clark, going into the semis.
